Updated our Journal (16): Without you there would be no Torment

And here we all stand setting history with the crowdfunding campaign for Torment: Tides of Numenera. We often speak of paradigm shifts and game changers in our industry but you are truly witnessing it in this groundbreaking new model of connecting creators with the players. You have all heard me speak to this new power, but truly it will shape the kinds of games you play and the policies of the developers and publishers. More than ever we are in sync with the simple goal of making games without ever losing the gamer’s interests. At Interplay our slogan was By Gamers, For Gamers and this attitude could not be truer today.

There is no way this game would have ever been funded without this new method of connection and without the passion of our backers who didn’t just donate but worked as a team to spread the word. You guys rock! The passion of the RPG gamer is like none other.

We are both humbled and excited that you have given us this opportunity. The team we have assembled is pretty unbelievable and I have full faith that together we will create a true classic. I never stopped working to get Chris Avellone aboard to make sure we had the band back together. But it only got better when we brought on guys like Pat Rothfuss and Kevin Saunders to take the game to new heights. The trick is always to surround ones self with brilliant people and to create an environment in which creativity can flourish.

I want to give a special shout-out to my wife Ashley for driving her insane by talking incessantly about Kickstarter, Wasteland 2 and Torment for 24 hours a day. I’d also like to thank super fan Steven Dengler who stepped up to match my dollar contribution. The world would be a better place with more Steven Denglers.

Our communication does not stop here. As you’ve seen, we do have our own creative vision for this game but it will be our regular contact with you that helps us hone in on the right aspects of it all. With this great crowdfunding success comes great responsibility and we could not take it more seriously. My confidence in delivering a classic you will love comes from this open dialogue.

As you may know we have a closing party today in which we will celebrate the success we’ve had with this campaign and countdown to the final minutes of closing. We are of course ecstatic at our current funding but we are a competitive bunch and would love to beat the total funding record that our dear friends at Obsidian currently hold. We thought it only natural to invite any backers of the game and at last count we had 100 of you RSVP that you are attending. I look forward to meeting you. And for those that cannot attend, you will be able to join us virtually at this link starting at 2:30 PDT:http://www.twitch.tv/inxile_entertainment

And before I end my writing let me share one more incredible concept piece from Nils Hamm that showcases the male player of Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Once again I would like to thank you for making it possible for me and all my team at inXile to spend many more years creating the best RPGs we can.

Comments

@Duskwind It wouldn't be an incomplete version of the game. It would be a base version of the game, as planned, with a number of follow-on modules that would meet the expansions in the stretch goals. The team need to aim to release a version of the game on time to avoid the inevitable complaints about delays and bad press. A lot of eyes will be on this game, in the industry and in the gaming community. Release of a base version of the game also gets the revenue stream started earlier, as the sales of the game bring money in to help develop and distribute the remainder of the functionality. The add-on modules can be charged expansions for non-backers, adding to the revenue. In short, it makes business sense to release on time.

@Nicolas think of the changing god,do you think he wants to stand out or blend in? that being said i would prefer,for the sake of players who care,to have a small number of customizable avatars so that everyone would shut up about " i dont wanna be black dude" or something along the lines of that...

@Nicolas - they're virtually the same design, aside from gender and somewhat different equipment. I'd agree the female illustration looks more interesting, but that's just because we can see more close up detail.

@Ian Kirby - they've already said the unexpectedly high funding is going to mean the game will take a bit longer to produce; that's unavoidable, not everything can be solved by throwing more people at it (nobody would suggest hiring a thousand extra people and releasing it next week as a viable option). Releasing an incomplete version of the game with DLC to follow doesn't appeal to me at all.

Jonathan: When constructing games like this you usualy employ a modular development system. meaning you develop a lot of module simultaneously then fit them together. That means if you have proper coordination and leadership, more content at the same approx time frame is then just a matter of adding more people to the project to form module groups. And adding more people equals the need of funds for their salaries which equals the stretch goals.

Congratulations on the successful Kickstarter. I'm excited to be an investor in your project. The creative team you've assembled sounds impressive and the artwork shown so far is what made me want to be a part of this. I hope that the creative team also has a good project manager to keep their feet on the ground and the expenses in line with the available money. Like some others who've commented, I'm a little concerned over the amount of work and the risk of overrun. I'm hoping that the basic game will be released with stretch goals adding to the game at intervals as patches if they can't be safely developed in time.

Probably redundant advice, but based on my experiences of other projects: Don't go mad with the money. Keep everyone informed. There's distribution costs at the end of the project. The money is for the specified project, not other stuff.

Here's anticipating the release of a great game in December 2014. Congratulations again everyone.

Looking at all these stretch goals, it's all cool and stuff, and I'm looking forward to it all greatly, but doesn't it seem like it will all add about a year and a half onto the development time of the game? I mean, if it's not a game like the free disk you get at Burger King is a game?

i completly agree with Azriel. the nameless one was possibly the coolest character in his game. the first castoff completly outshines this guy in every way and will make me wish i could play as him. even the female protagonist gets to have jet black eyes. this one well, nothing special apart from a rather distastefull tatoo on his forehead. I urge you to reconcider his overal apearance, the grey hooded robes can work but he realy needs to look the part, we need a character that looks like he could not be made using an in-game character creator, else whats the point of having a fixed apearance? in the very least to change the hairstyle to something more outlandish.

Like I said, I do not mind the fact the character is not white, but the haircut (or burned off hair, whatever) really is bugging me, I mean, it is just ugly. I do think BOTH the male and female version of the characters look very generic. I really wish we could customize our characters. Or have a very unique character. I mean, look at how cool the first castoff looks? Yes, a walking living fleshless being who wears a mask. THAT IS FREAKING COOL! Why can't we be that? Come on, its a BILLION years, you would think the walking former god would be a little unique and awe/fear inspiring. That is why I really would love some type of character customization. PST character was very rememberable and unique, This, not so much. It would be nice to have some really freaky body types as options like the first castoff. Since the character itself is 3d, why not? The only reason I can see is for self portraits, ok, here is a thought. What if we do not have a self portrait, but instead have the portrait be a mask or something? Or what about like in balders gate where you had several random type portraits that had nothing to do with the character, but you got to have something that fit more with your personality?

The time to say 'hey we think we can fit the stronghold in' would be AFTER everything else is good to go. Promising the sun and stars is great PR...until you can't deliver. I'm sure they could add all sorts of things at 4M, but it would come at the expense of the quality of the game as a whole.

I had no impression that the extra donor money was included in the calculation of hitting the stretch goals. Over and over, it was current pledges & Paypal. If you assumed that they were included, that's on you. It also seems churlish in the extreme to complain, much less level charges that they were dishonest about it. It's Brian Fargo's money. The only person who could conceivably complain about it would be Steven Dengler, but I'm willing to bet he understood where his money was going.

Very excited about the game, very sure it'll be worth every penny of my pledge and a whole lot more, and very anxious for the community to focus on that and not fracture over semantics and petty bickering.

Again, congratulations on reaching this, and enjoy the party!
On the "stronghold" subject, I'd say just put it in if it fits the story/gameplay. Otherwise I personally wouldn't bother. Such a thing (imho) shouldn't be forced in just because a certain amount of money was/might be reached. On the other hand, I'm completely incapable of disposing items of which I'm not sure if I should dispose of, so some kind of locker would be appreciated if applicable/worth the effort of keeping items one does not want to sale. Hope that somewhat makes some kind of sense :)

Every Kickstarter project faces Amazon fees, Kickstarter fees, and failed pledges. The standard for Kickstarters is that they establish whether stretch goals have been met, or not, before it is known how much will finally be collected. No other Kickstarter I'm aware of has established stretch goals with published dollar targets and then said that Amazon/Kickstarter fees would retroactively change the amount that needs to be raised. Everyone at inXile knew about those fees prior to publishing the stretch goal numbers.

Backers have no power and can't back out now but I suspect the clear expectation is (and was) that each of the $100K contributions would count towards stretch goals. Truthfully, the fans have to take it on faith that these off-the-record $200K transactions will even take place. I think backers gave inXile leeway to have those numbers outside the official Kickstarter system because of two reasons: Kickstarter rules prevent inXile (aka Brian Fargo) from donating to his own project, and by doing the transaction directly for the other $100K it is possible to save on all the Amazon/Kickstarter fees taking a bite out of that money.

In a social world, the standard of behavior by which you'll be judged is delivering on the expectations you set. Technicalities and justifications are only a defense in a court of law but not in the court of public opinion.

The pledge matching will make a small contribution towards covering the costs of Kickstarter/Amazon fees, production and mailing of rewards, etc, allowing more of the pledged total to actually get spent on making the game better.

By my reckoning we may have reached the 4.5 million Stronghold goal if you include the $200k of pledge matching and $127k of Paypal. Otherwise what is the point of pledge matching? Also it would be very good PR. Worst case Paypal should be left open to see if we can hit 4.5 million without pledge matching. 184k out of 4.5 million isn't a hard goal.

Congratulations! Looks like everybody kept inside our hearts memories about this game. But we wasn't connected with ours souls, minds and souls. Now, all spirit of us connected in the RIVER of TORMENT. We are the force and power of this river.
Dak'kon's sword maybe has strongest condition, cause our fate have won Big Emptiness, and now we see The Light of this Event.Congratulations!

Amazing to think that once upon a time we all stumbled into Sigil, blinking and confused. We fell in love with Annah, we taught Morte the greatest of curses. We came to *know* Dak'kon, and all the things that can change the nature of a man. Then we left Sigil. We got jobs, got married, got dogs and cats and found ourselves helplessly absorbed into life. Now we are grown, and together we are moving mountains. Gratz, everyone.

Couldn't help myself. Even tought my original pledge was way beyond what would be remotely sensible on my budget, I've just upped to include the printed novella compilation in my collector's edition. Congratulations everyone, and thank you everyone. I've been playing BG2 and Torment regularly ever since they've been released way back then and thanks to you I'll be playing a spiritual successor sometime in the future!

@John Vanderbeck - I'm not so sure. Maybe it can happen. On the tumblr site they're counting PayPal transactions towards the goal, and they have $127k from PayPal plus by the time if this post $4,112k, so that puts this at $4,289k. So only $210k more to go, seems like a lot but seeing as on this last day a flood of new money came in, maybe in these last 2 hours we'll get some more in. I just pumped my own pledge up to an amount I'm shockingly surprised at myself for to get another digital add-on, so if we have a few more of those, who knows...